I feel the image is far more challenging than it first seems. But just the right concept to test our matte painting skills! Therefore I find it important to break the image down well before proceeding with the actual painting/compositing. Maybe do some testing with the perspective, analyze the light direction and find some good reference material.

After reading the brief, I took some quick notes about areas I need to pay some extra attention to:

- I have to keep true to the original concept; get a good amount of both "relaxed" and "busy" areas to make the image read well and seem interesting. It's a good and inpiring design.

- Due to the darkness of the sky and some rimlight on the planets, I feel it's more like a nightime setting than a bright day. Have to be careful with my value balance and lighting setup.

- The suggested lighting condition of the initial concept needs some work to get realistically executed. I really like the silhouette like shapes in the horizon, so I want to keep them separated from the foreground which gets most of the light... Creates a lot of depth and drama to the image...

- The cloud material is always a bit tricky to work with, since some of the light gets absorbed into the clouds and scatters heavily.

I'll probably start by modeling a quick&dirty 3D mockup to study the perspective and lighting. After that I'll paint a "base sketch" to work from, so I have some starting point for my value range and color palette when I start working with the photo material.